Temperance Movement


This is a lithograph titled "The Drunkard's Progress" by Nathaniel Currier (1846). This depicts what temperance supporters called the consequences of alcohol consumption.
This is a lithograph titled "The Drunkard's Progress" by Nathaniel Currier (1846). This depicts what temperance supporters called the consequences of alcohol consumption.
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This is a Temperance Ticket, or a list of people that pledged abstinence.




Summary:
*Temperance was a reform movement that was widely supported during the mid 1800s. Temperance was the want to stop the consumption and selling of alcohol in efforts to revive good morals. The Temperance movement in the Antebellum era was an effort to ban the consumption and selling of alcohol in effort to spread complete abstinence against drinking. Ma​ny supporters urged states to pass laws that restricted the consumption/selling of alcohol; Maine passed a law like this in 1851. Women, Christians, and Protestants strongly backed the Temperance Movement as alcoholism lead to spousal and child abuse as well as poverty, crime, and disorder. Temperance gained the support of many through organizations such as the American Temperance Society, which was 200,000 members strong with speakers who attempted to spread knowledge about the negative effects of alcohol.


Key Figures/People:
  • Billy J. Clark : a physician from Moreau, Saratoga County, N.Y. who formed the first temperance society in 1808.
  • Neal Dow: got Maine to pass a statute in 1851 which outlawed the manufacture and sale of intoxicants.
  • Lyman Beecher : a pastor from East Hampton, N.Y. who persuaded to politicians to join with him. Together, they created the Connecticut Society for the Reformation of Morals on May 19, 1813. They dedicated their time to the suppression of both drinking alcohol and gambling as well as the promotion of lawfulness.
  • American Temperance Society (ATS) a group who had evangelical as well as an equal amount of male and female followers. The ATS published articles and hired speakers to spread knowledge about the negative effects of alcohol consumption. The goal of this society was to spread complete abstinence against alcohol.
  • Protestants felt that alcohol was the source most responsible for crime, disorder, and poverty and therefore had to be banned from society so that society could improve. This pinned the Protestants against Catholic Immigrants, which could be seen as a way of trying to rid America of bad habits brought into the country not by natives, but by foreigners.
  • Women's Christian Union (WCTU) group spoke publically about the prohibition and supported elected officials who made laws banning the comsumption of alcohol
  • Carry Nation was an obvious prohibitionist who went to saloons and smashed all the liquor bottles she could, an act of trying to get rid of alchohol
  • Ohio Women's Temperance Society,(President Josephine Bateman) for the first time tried to spread abstinence against alcohol in Ohio
  • Irish and German immigrants- Many saw these immigrants as bad influences to society because their cultures revolved around alcohol.
  • Connecticut Society for the Reformation of Morals - individual self reform from alcohol and family harmony.
  • Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1874) - was later created; christian women banded together to keep the focus of temperance alive after it had fallen due to the civil war.
  • Anti-Saloon League (1893) - worked within the existing political party to support candidates that were concerned with governmental control of liquor.
Key Events:
  • The Temperance Movement was first formulated in the 17th century, but was later revived in the 19th century by Billy J. Clark in New York in order to promote lawfullness and stop drinking and gambling problems in society.
  • Formation of the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance on February 13, 1826 (an agency that attempted to preach abstinence of alcohol through many of the revivalism techniques).
  • In 1840, the creation of the Washington Temperance Society by six recovered alcoholics in Baltimore. The Washington Temperance Society drew large crowds that grew into millions of followers pledging abstinence of alcohol. These six recovered alcoholics told about their sins while under the influence of alcohol and how it has affected them negatively.
  • The American Temperance Society held a national convention in Philadelphia (1833) where many different temerance groups discussed ideas of becoming an American Temperance Union.
  • Prohibition Party (1869) - Was created as a result of the Temperance Movement; political party that campaigned for the prohibition of alcohol


This is a picture of a snake coming out of an alcohol bottle. This image was used to show the negative outcomes of drinking and thus supported temperance.
This is a picture of a snake coming out of an alcohol bottle. This image was used to show the negative outcomes of drinking and thus supported temperance.
Cause:
Causes of the Temperance Movement were...
  • The Second Great Awakening
  • "Moonshine" farmers would turn their crops into alcohol to make it more portable and easier to sell
  • Slacking/drunk workers in the workplace
  • Lack of male figures in the home; lack of money in the household
  • Gambling
  • Altogether, drunkenness and general lawlessness
    temperance-women-swell.jpg
    This is a picture of a woman with a swelled head that is used to show womens' frustration with alcoholism.
  • Abuse on women and children
  • Alcohol consumption was the highest in American history during this period
  • Milk and water had a high probability of being contaminated or spoiled

Goal of the movement:
One goal of the Temperance Movement was to stop drunkeness which led to abuse, poverty, crime, and disorder. A second goal was to limit the selling of alcohol which would prevent the drunkenness. A third goal of the Temperance Movement was to revive good morals through faith and focus on the individual. A third goal of the movement was to spread good morals in the individual through religion. A fourth goal of the movement was to get rid of alcohol all together (didn't work).

Tactics/strategies:
Temperance movent movement groups spread out across the country and preached in orger to gain followers.
Recovered alcoholics would tell their stories trying to gain friends and followers who would continue to speak of temperance even after their departure.
Generally they went around preaching in churches and speaking of sins; alcohol, prostitution, gamblng, and general unlawfulness.
They would sway politicians to join the movement and run for elctions to promote temperance.
Literature- they had their own publishing company so that they could write books and pamphlets.
Religious groups promoted abstinence because an excess of drinking was thought to be sinful.
Creation of separate political parties that fought for prohibition of alcohol.
Members of the American Temperance Movement urged the people to sign a pledge that stated they would refrain from all alcohol use.



Successes/Failures:
1836- Annual convention of ATU or the American Temperance Union led to a heated argument over what they should preach. This ended with a diminished group that had even fewer members. However, the 1840s brought with it a revival to Temperance with the Washington Temperance Society and with it came an even higher amount of pledges and followers.
Altogether, the Temperance Movement was successful in reviving good morals and spreading the idea for temperance throughout a nation that was overwhelmed by the influence of alcohol to its society's core.
The Temperance Movement eventually converted to the Prohibition Party, after the 21 Amendment, it almost completely died out. Today there are still small groups of people, usually religious, that continue to preach the ideas of temperance.
In 1846 Maine passed a law banning the consumption and selling of alcohol; not too long after 13 other states also passed similar laws.
As Manufacturing started to increase in the North, factories supported temperance to support a healthy,safe, and sober work place for all.
The movement was very successful in reducing the rate of national alcohol consumption which was the highest in American history
A failure of the movement was that once the civil war started, this issue had fallen behind and wasn't talked about much until the early 20th century
Another failure of the Temperance Movement was that groups such as the Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance believed that only the lower class should have to cut back on drinking because they were the ones committing crimes; this saw as a failure because they were pointing the finger at only one social class when all were to blame.
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This is an advertisement for a Temperance Convention in 1841 in Connecticut.

Bibliography:
"Temperance Movement." Def. 1. Dictionary of American History. Ed. JAMES TRUSLOW ADAMS and R. V. COLEMAN. Vol. 1. New York: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 1940.
Print.

Carlson, Douglas W. "Temperance Movement." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. Vol. 8. 3rd ed. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 78-81. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. High School. 12 Nov. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=s0003>.

Brinkley, Alan. "The Temperance Crusade." American History a Survey. 11th ed.
1959. New York: McGraw Hill, 2003. 327-28. Print.

Claybaugh, Amanda. "Temperance." American History Through Literature 1820-1870. Ed. Janet Gabler-Hover and Robert Sattelmeyer. Vol. 3. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 1152-1158. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. High School. 12 Nov. 2009 http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=s0003.

"Temperance Movement", Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=560
"Temperance Movement in the Early 1800s, 1800-1860." DISCovering U.S. History. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Discovering Collection. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.
"Prohibition party." The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th ed. Columbia University Press, 2000. 31425. General OneFile. Web. 18 Nov. 2010
"Temperance Movement." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Ed. Thomas Carson and Mary Bonk. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999.Discovering Collection. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.

Helpful Websites:
Temperance Movement Explanation
This page offers some other webpages that would help build understanding of the Temperance Movement.
History Channel Temperance Document
This is a link to an article that explains the Temperance Movement.
//Period 5 - Temperance
This link gives different articles and speeches based on the Temperance Movement.
HippoCampus Vid/txt
This is a HippoCampus link with both helpful text and video.
Ohio Temperance
This website gives on overview on Temperance and then details how Temperance was perceived in Ohio.

Primary Documents/Sources:
http://chnm.gmu.edu/lostmuseum/lm/327/
This is a link for a pledge of abstinence that was taken during the Temperance Movement.
Helpful Temperance Website
This website has primary documents (pictures, some of which are displayed on our wikispace) and an explanation of the Temperance Movement.
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/display_results.php?id=GLC04006Temperance Document Webpage
This link provides a document created by James Madison on Temperance.